Brunei's chef de mission to the
Guangzhou Asian Games Hj
Muhd Zamri DP Hj Hamdani
(above) had nothing but praise for
16-year-old Lee Ying Shi who
placed 11th in a field of 14
competitors during Tuesday's Long
Fist (Changquan) event.
Picture: Infofoto

Brunei's chef de mission to the Guangzhou Asian Games has nothing but praise for Lee Ying Shi.

The 16-year-old placed 11th in a field of 14 competitors during Tuesday's Long Fist (Changquan) event at Nansha Gymnasium's Field A, agonisingly close to her goal of a Top-10 finish.

Preferring to focus on the positives, Hj Muhd Zamri DP Hj Hamdani said that the wushu exponent's result at the 16th edition of the Games must be put into perspective.

"Basically I am happy with her performance," he told The Brunei Times hours after Lee's performance.

"She wasn't last, she finished 11th out of the 14 competitors ... that's not too bad for her.

"You know, she has only been doing serious training for this discipline since June. All this while she has been doing Duilian (duo sparring) so this is new to her.

"Judging from her performance, she is just lacking in the degree of movement and degree of difficulty. So it is in those areas that need to be ... focused on," added the Deputy Director (II) of the Department of Youth and Sports.

The Sultanate's flag-bearer at last Friday's opening ceremony, Lee ended the day-long competition with 7.72 points.

The judges awarded Lee 4.2 out of five for quality of movement (A), 2.47 out of three for overall performance (B) and 1.05 out of 2 for degree of difficulty (C) scores she felt she could improve on.

Hong Kong's Geng Xiaoling won the event with a score of 9.75 (A:5, B:2.75 and C:2) while Myanmar's Oo Sandi Oo took home silver with 9.67 (A:5, B:2.67 and C:2).

Indonesia's Susyana Tjhan and Japan's Yuki Hiraoka were tied for third after both finished with identical 9.66 (A:5, B: 2.66 and C:2).

Hj Muhd Zamri hit the nail on the head when he said that competing in the Changquan discipline was something new for Lee, who is more at home participating in Duilian events.

Combining with Faustina Woo Wai Sii, the pair has rose to become one of the most successful partnerships in the national wushu team of late.

They took home gold in Duilian during the 4th World Traditional Wushu Championship in China in October, returned with silver during the 25th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos last December and came back with bronze from the 3rd Indoor Asian Games in Vietnam last November.

The chef de mission also pointed out, and rightly so, that Lee who has only been in the sport for three years was not on par with her competitors when it comes to experience.

"Some of her competitors have been in this (wushu) since they were five years old ... 10 years old," he said.

"She told me some of her competitors have 15 years of experience.

"The coach (Li Hui) suggested we identify talent as young as possible, and as you might know, we have identified some already ... some as young as four or five years old have already joined the wushu team.

I hope these people will be able to deliver in future Games," added Hj Muhd Zamri, the vice-president of the Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council (BNOC).

He also touched on the issue of how the lack of mats for the wushu team also played a part in Lee's showing. The team only got them (the mats) in June; before that they were only able to train properly overseas.

"Despite the limitation of mats she did well," he said.

"Though they were training in Brunei before that it was not rigorous. Without the mats it is very risky," said Hj Muhd Zamri, who also headed the contingent to last December's Laos SEA Games.